It was probably a forgone conclusion that Soriano was going to leave via free agency anyway, but this likely seals it, seeing as though guys don’t usually hire Boras to negotiate their creative, incentive-laden, keep-me-with-my-current-team deals.

The Rays certainly got great use out of him. Hoping to grab a draft pick, the Braves offered Soriano arbitration last winter, only to have him accept it. After bringing in Billy Wagner and Takashi Saito, however, Atlanta wasn’t about to pay Soriano $7 million, so they traded him to Tampa Bay for baubles and trinkets. All he’s done for the Rays is post a 1.76
ERA, a 0.78 WHIP and notch 44 saves in 47 chances this season.

Soriano has been one of the best relief pitchers in all of baseball over the past five years. Yes, there’s a lot of mileage on that arm of his, but he’ll likely get a nice payday all the same.